Charlotte Green replaces James Alexander Gordon, who has been the voice of the BBC classified football results for four decades. Photograph: Tetra Images/Alamy

When Charlotte Green announces the BBC's classified football results for the first time on Saturday afternoon, she will be forgiven if her mind wanders to the kitchen table where she sat miming along to the scores 50 years ago.

Green, a former BBC Radio 4 Today presenter, has described the "enormous honour" of fulfilling a life's ambition when she makes her debut as BBC Radio 5 Live's football announcer this weekend.

"It's terribly significant, and for me to be given the opportunity to read them is a huge honour and a privilege and I take it very seriously. I will be nervous, my heart will be pumping quite a bit," said Green in an interview with 5 Live presenter Mark Pougatch.

Green replaces James Alexander Gordon, the familiar Scottish voice of the BBC classified football results for four decades before he bowed out in July. Gordon announced he was to retire following surgery to treat throat cancer.

Tottenham Hotspur supporter Green recalled being on the other side of the radio as a six-year-old football fan while her father – a follower of north London rivals, Arsenal – insisted on silence.

She claimed not to have thought too deeply about whether she will adopt a particular style of broadcasting, saying she would sound "ridiculously fake" if she was not true to her natural technique.

And Green insisted she was taken aback by the focus on the fact she will be the first woman in broadcasting history to announce the football scores on BBC radio.

"To be honest I was quite surprised that there was such a response to the fact that it's a woman reading them for the first time," she said. "In a way it shouldn't matter what gender you are, what matters is that you do a good, professional job and that's something that I really aim to do."